Today’s News: Budget woes, FICO’s move

Sex Scheme. Detectives from the LA Police Department are investigating allegations that two officers lured women into unmarked cars and forced them to have sex in a scheme that went on for five years. According to a search warrant obtained by the detectives, Officers Luis Valenzuela and James Nichols would threaten women with jail time in order to convince them to get into their cars. They would then drive them to a secluded area and one officer would demand sex and the other would stand watch. NBCLA

LA Budget Woes. While Congress just barely missed going over the so-called fiscal cliff, there are still pending budget cuts that could hit Los Angeles. But the city of Los Angeles could still be hit by steep federal budget cuts. At stake is $115 million in funding for housing, community development and public safety programs. City News Service

Fixing the Assessor’s Office. A new audit of the L.A. County assessor’s office in the wake of a corruption scandal is calling for the creation of a permanent “chief deputy” to oversee the tax assessing and collection agency. Other recommended changes include requiring private tax consultants to register with the county. The LA Times reports that auditors also cited “brain drain,” saying that 44 percent “of its senior managers have left since 2010 and have been replaced by managers who lack experience or training in running a department.” Los Angeles Times

On the Brink of Bankruptcy. Six former City Council members accused of bilking the city of Bell of hundreds of thousands of dollars could be headed to trial later this month. Alligations include being paid for going to city board meetings that rarely met. “As a result, council members earned nearly $100,000 a year for part-time jobs running a city with fewer than 40,000 people,” reports KTLA.

Credit Score Goes Silicon Valley. The folks that invented the credit score are getting a new address. The company called FICO is moving its headquarters from Minneapolis to San Jose to take advantage of the brain power in the Silicon Valley as it reaches into Big Data. It’s a homecoming of sorts for the company, which was founded in 1956 by an engineer and a mathematician who worked together at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif. Minneapolis Star Tribune